


It must be something inside

by neworld



Category: Misfits (TV 2009), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22208989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neworld/pseuds/neworld
Summary: This fic was inspired by an interview of Robert Sheehan, he was asked if he though Nathan Young from Misfits and Klaus Hargreeves from TUA were similar characters.  He said he didn’t think they were, that Klaus was a much softer, sweeter person than Nathan, and that if the two of them ever hung out together Klaus would probably end up dead within a week.I heard that and though “OMG crossover were Nathan and Klaus randomly meet and are fascinated with each other because they look identical. Klaus follows Nathan around everywhere he goes, getting up to shenanigans, but because Nathan is really high energy and kind of an inconsiderate jerk Klaus get’s really run down and exhausted and sick without Nathan noticing or caring.
Comments: 36
Kudos: 104





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [painting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/painting/gifts).



> Hey Paining,  
> I had a shot at writing that fic I was telling you about a while ago. Here is the first installment.

Klaus was on the way to the pawn shop to sell some earrings that had belonged to Allison. As he walked down the street, he noticed another young man approaching the pawn shop from opposite direction. But when they got closer, they both stopped as they noticed how confusingly, eerily similar they were. The two of them looked identical, like twins.

They both did double takes in a near perfect mirror of each other. Klaus was stunned, it was like looking at his own reflection, but not dressed the same. Klaus was wearing black leather pants and a pink mohair sweater, the stranger was wearing ripped jeans, and a faded daft punk t-shirt with a long-sleeved flannel shirt over it. Klaus was wearing eyeliner and had a scruffy goatee; the stranger had no makeup and was clean shaven. But their hair was identical wild messy curls.

“Woah…!” The stranger said in amazement as he began circling around Klaus to get a look at him.

“Is this real or am I way higher than I thought?” Klaus asked Ben in an awed whisper.

“Yeah, he’s real.” Ben replied, equally stunned. “Who is he? Why does he look so much like you?”

“That’s what I’d like to know too.” The stranger agreed, he spoke with an Irish accent but the sound of his voice matched Klaus’s.

It took Klaus’s brain a few seconds to process what the man had just said, the accent and the fact he had just responded to Ben.

“You can see him!” Klaus gasped.

“You can see me?” Ben asked at the same time.

“Is he dead?” The Irishman asked, jerking a thumb at Ben. “Yeah I see dead people, I’m like that creepy little blond kid.”

“Haley Joel Osment.” Ben put in helpfully. 

“We have to be twins right?” Klaus interrupted. He was still staring at his doppelganger in slack jawed amazement.

“Long lost twins, separated at birth.” Klaus’s eyes took on a glazed, faraway look, full of emotion.

“Nah.” The stranger disagreed. “My mum would have definitely mentioned if I was a twin.”

“But we have to be!” Klaus exclaimed. “Your mother was probably just embarrassed about selling me to an eccentric old man with questionable motives.”

“Don’t go slagging off my mum.” The Irishman glared at him.

“What? I wasn’t…” Klaus began, he wasn’t even all that sure what the man had said. 

“Maybe you’re lying, maybe your true power is to look like whoever you’re talking to.” The Irishman accused.

“But we can both see dead people.” Klaus pointed out, phasing a hand through Ben’s chest to demonstrate he was a ghost.

The Irishman shrugged.

“Look I’d love to stick around and find out what…this is all about.” He said gesturing vaguely at all of Klaus. 

“But I’m kind of already in the middle of a crazy adventure.” The man clapped Klaus on the shoulder and turned toward the pawn shop.

“But…!” Klaus began but his double had already spun back around.

“Unless!” He interrupted.

“What?” Klaus asked feeling a bit disoriented.

“Unless you’re interested in an investment?”

Klaus raised his eyebrows in a “go on” kind of gesture.

“I’m going to a poker game later, a private one, high stakes, the more cash I can buy in with the better.” The Irishman told him. “I’m going to cheat, obviously, with ghosts, you know, looking at the other players cards. We pool whatever we get for this stuff now, and I’ll pay you pack double after the game.”

“Ok deal.” Klaus agreed, more because he wanted to find out who this person was than because he thought it sounded like a safe plan.

As they left the pawn shop Klaus pocketed some of his cash and handed the rest to his new friend. 

“I’m Klaus by the way.” Klaus told him.

“Nathan.” His double responded.

“So where is this poker game?” Ben asked.

“Not too far, a few blocks.” Nathan told him.

“Can we take a quick detour?” Klaus pleaded.

“I need to get something to take the edge off.” 

“Are you a junkie?” Nathan asked. Usually when Klaus was asked this it was a furious accusation, or concern. But Nathan asked as if he thought drug addiction was similar to a having a lame and embarrassing hobby.

“I need a break from them sometimes.” Klaus said with a shrug.

“Who?” Nathan asked.

Klaus had expected Nathan to instantly understand what he was talking about. Surely, they had had similar experiences. They were identical, they had the same powers… But then Nathan did something that showed he handled the ghosts very differently to Klaus. 

The ghost of a heartbreakingly beautiful young man came shuffling around the corner. It was unclear exactly what had happened to him, but part of his head had been cut away, a clean cut that took off a good quarter of his face a right angle. It wasn’t visible at all as he came around the corner only the good side of his face was showing. Then he turned and the visceral open wound came into view. 

Klaus was filled with loathing at the horrible sight, then sadness and pity and misplaced guilt. Before he could process any of these emotions Nathan clapped him on the shoulder and exclaimed in a delighted voice.

“Would you look at that poor fucker!” 

When the ghost turned its remaining solemn eye to the pair of them Nathan beamed at him.

“Oh mate, what the fuck happened to you? Grossest death I’ve seen all week!” He laughed heartily as he walked past the mutilated spirit.

Klaus followed Nathen in awe. He had never met anyone so blasé. Nothing appeared to faze him. The ghosts, the fact he had just run into his perfect double in the street, that he was about to go to a seedy underground poker tournament and cheat, whatever, no fucks given. 

“So, you’re one of the 46, right?” Klaus asked as they walked.

“Yeah but I didn’t know about it until a few years ago.” The Irishman told him with an angry scowl.

“Really? Didn’t your powers start until then?” Klaus asked, interested. It was hard to get any information out of Nathan despite the fact he talked _a lot_. Most of what he said was absurd, or clearly untrue if not heavily embellished. From what Klaus could put together it seemed that Nathan either hadn’t noticed his powers or they hadn’t manifested until he was in his teens. At this point his mother had confided in him about his odd birth.

“I always thought my dad was such a prick for leaving when I was young.” Nathan told Klaus bitterly. “Now I know it was because he couldn’t handle the whole spontaneous pregnancy thing.” 

Nathan frowned to himself.

“I still think he’s a twat. It wasn’t like it was my mum’s fault, she was just walking along, minding her own business, then bang! Having a funckin baby out of nowhere, right in the dairy isle at tesco’s! Can you imagine? Blood and yogurt and placenta everywhere, other customers losing their shit!”

There was a long pause as they all processed that imagery.

“My father is also a twat.” Klaus told Nathan sympathetically. 

As they neared the address Nathan pulled Klaus aside. 

“Listen Clyde, I think you should wait out here.” Nathan told Klaus. 

“I said I would come alone and…you know the whole looking the same thing… it’s just going to confuse everyone.”

Klaus looked heartbroken.

“What? No way!” He argued. “Everyone will just think we are twins.” 

“With different accents?” Nathan asked.

“I’ll do an Irish accent!” Klaus said gleefully.

“Or, you could stay out here and keep an eye out for the police.” Nathan insisted. 

“You’re making me look out?” Klaus was devastated. “I hate being look out.” 

Nathan clapped him on the shoulder in a commiserating kind of way.

“Ok Ben let’s go.” He said to the ghost.

“You’re taking Ben but not me!” Klaus asked. “He’s dead!”

Ben gave him a smug look.

“That’s why I need him.” Nathan argued. 

Nathan and Ben left Klaus in a small rundown park across the road from the block of buildings they were going into. Klaus stomped around, grumbling about how much he hated being look out. He crossed his arms and rubbed his hands up and down his skinny biceps to try and warm up. He really wasn’t dressed for being outside for any extended time. It was cold as there was a fine haze of rain. Not the kind you even need an umbrella for, just a constant mist that eventually soaked your clothing and made your hair frizz up if you happened to have curly hair. 

Withdrawal was starting and Klaus started shaking and feeling nauseous as the drugs worked their way out of his system. He was hesitant to leave his post, worried he would never find Nathan again. Eventually he couldn’t take it and ran off briefly to find his dealer. He would be gone an hour tops, and poker games last ages, he reasoned. He bought a bag of pills and came back to the park. 

Now that he was high being look out didn’t seem like such a bad deal. He was no longer bothered by the cold and just lay on a park bench looking up at the dull grey sky, daydreaming. He was just beginning to wonder if he had missed Ben and Nathan when they suddenly appeared, running through the park with matching expressions of panic. 

“Come on Kyle, we got to run!” Nathan told Klaus, grabbing him and pulling him along before Klaus had a moment to process what was happening. 

They ran through the park, vaulted over a fence, ran several blocks then into a train station and onto a random train before they finally stopped. 

Klaus thought his lungs were going to burst. The intense, sudden exercise had really helped kick whatever he had taken up a notch, leaving him feeling giddy and a bit detached from reality. 

Nathan was also panting and red in the face. Ben, incapable of being winded looked particularly neat and composed next the two of them, sprawled all over the seats of the train and gasping for breath. Ben scowled at the two of them.

“That was some reckless bullshit.” He snapped at Nathan. “He didn’t even know how to play poker.” Ben added to Klaus.

“Why is that so important?” Nathan asked, still breathless.

“Are you kidding me?” Ben fumed. “Just knowing what the other player have is not enough to win, you have to be able to bluff, and you didn’t even know what a good hand was for Christ’s sake! What would you have done if I didn’t know how to play?”

“I’d have worked something out.” Nathan told him, nonplussed.

Klaus giggled but he was still out of breath and it made him cough. When he got it under control and looked up, Ben was glaring at him. 

“You’re high aren’t you?” He accused. “Nice work as look out.” Ben rolled his eyes.

Klaus ignored him and zeroed in on Nathan instead, who had gotten his breath back and was now counting the money he had got away with sadly.

“Looks like you have less than half.” Klaus said, unimpressed.

Nathan scowled and looked angry.

“We just need to try again.” He pouted.

“I was only getting the hang of it when I accidently insulted this guy and we had to leave in a hurry.”

“Accidently?” Ben asked. “You told him his neck tattoo made it look like he had some sort of skin disease.”

“So what? It did? How was I supposed to know he was sensitive about it? Nathan scoffed.

“Do we have enough to buy in again? After that guy leaves.” Klaus asked. 

He was starting to feel bad, now that his body was cooling down from all the running, he felt shaky. He was desperately thirsty after running so much. Klaus realised he couldn’t remember the last time he drank anything or ate anything for that matter.

“No but there must be something we can try to get more cash.” Nathan mused. “Some way to make use of this whole…” he broke off and gestured to Klaus. 

“Some kind of two places at once type hijinks?” Klaus encouraged, he straightened up in the seat as he spoke but overcorrected and slumped woozily against Nathan. 

“I almost never say this, but we need to come up with a plan.” Nathan decided, shoving Klaus back upright in a casual, unconcerned manner, like he was already very comfortable around him.

They got off the train and went to a nearby bar. Nathan bought them both beers without bothering to ask Klaus what he wanted. Klaus hated beer but sipped it anyway. His throat was like the burning desert sand. 

“Are you sure you’re not a shapeshifter?” Nathan asked Klaus. “It would actually be really convenient.”

“No, I told you. I always look this fabulous.” Klaus insisted.

“This is bullshit.” Nathan complained. “None of my plans are working out right.”

“Your last plan was barely a plan.” Ben criticised.

“What else did you try?” Klaus asked curious. 

“A casino.” Nathan muttered. “But it turns out they play the wrong kind of poker in casinos. Some of the cards are face down on the table, the ghosts couldn’t tell me what they were.”

“And you don’t know how to play.” Ben reminded him.

“Get off my back about that already.” Nathan sighed. 

“I know how to play poker.” Klaus said thoughtfully. 

“Why didn’t you say so before?” Nathan snapped angrily.

“I didn’t realise you didn’t.” Klaus shrugged.

“That would be a better plan…” Ben decided. “Nathan should play first, lull the other player into a sense of false security with his shit playing….”

Nathan smirked, as if pleased he managed to be useful in his incompetence and had expected no less.

“…then when they let their guard down, go into the bathrooms and swap with Klaus. Then we can start winning some hands.”

“The different accent thing though.” Nathan pointed out.

“I’ll just do your accent!” Klaus insisted, he was excited to pretend to be Irish for a night.

“Or I can do your accent!” Nathan grinned. 

The two off them spent the next ten minutes impersonating each other and laughing hysterically.

“Well it won’t matter if we can’t get together enough money to buy in.” Ben interrupted when he reached his limit.

“I’ve thought of something that might work.” Klaus said after thinking for a moment.

“We should rob my dad. He’s super rich but he won’t give me a dime. What a miser!”

Nathan looked interested.

“I will distract them.” Klaus continued. “They will expect me to try and steal from them since… you know… I have before… kind of a lot…”

Ben sighed, nodding.

“Then while they are focused on me, Ben can show you through to dear old dad’s office, there is a safe under a painting in there.” Klaus suggested.

“And if anyone runs into me while I’m at it they’ll just think I’m you.” Nathan said, he seemed to be getting excited about this idea. 

“Exactly!” Klaus agreed. “They won’t call the police, they’ll probably just yell at you and throw you out of the house, worst case scenario they put you in rehab.”

“What if they catch both of you together?” Ben worried. 

“They won’t.” Klaus and Nathan insisted at the same time, with matching inflections of unwarranted confidence. 

Klaus Laughed.

“I can’t believe you don’t think we are twins!” He exclaimed.

“We’re not twin.” Nathan rolled his eyes.

“I’m with Klaus on this one, I don’t see a better explanation.” Ben said.

“What if all the people with powers have a double?” Nathan suggested.

Klaus gasped

“Mind blown.” He said, awe struck.

“You think I have a twin too?” Ben asked sceptically.

“Do you have a power?” Nathan asked Ben.

“Yeah.” Ben sighed.

“What is it?” Nathan asked.

“It doesn’t matter.” Ben told him. “It’s useless now.” 

Nathan seemed to pick up that Ben was embarrassed, or uncomfortable with his power. But rather than back off he went right for it.

“Come on tell me!” He begged. “I want to know.” 

Ben just glared at him.

“What’s his power?” Nathan asked Klaus, who was still staring at him like he was a mythical being, his eyes were glassy and red from the pill he’d taken earlier. 

“Oh, he has these gigantic tentacles that come out of his stomach.” Klaus told him, not really thinking about what he was saying. He felt odd and floaty, like he was in a dream.

“What?! That’s the craziest power I ever heard of!” Nathan chortled. “I want to see them!”

“What? No!” Ben huffed and crossed arms firmly.

“Come on! Get them out!” Nathan yelled.

Unfortunately, this got them thrown out of the bar, a woman standing nearby had thought he was talking to her. Nathan had no other convincing explanation. 

“Ok let’s go to your dad’s house.” Nathan said as they set off down the street.

“It’s kind of late for a social call.” Ben pointed out.

“It will be fine.” Klaus dismissed his brother’s concern and off they went.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus and Nathan go to the Hargreeves mansion to try and steal money or something to pawn, but it doesn't go as planned, because, of course it doesn't.

When they got to the mansion Nathan let out a low, impressed whistle.

“Maybe we are twins and I deserve an inheritance.” He said hopefully.

Klaus grimaced.

“Trust me it’s not worth it.” He said. 

“OK, so I think the best way to do this is I come in the front door, get everyone’s attention, meanwhile you sneak in the back.”

Nathan agreed and Ben led him off to show him how to break in from the alley behind the mansion. 

Klaus knocked on the front door and Grace answered it.

“Klaus sweetheart!” Grace beamed at him, she ushered him in and explained, to Klaus’s relief that Reginald Hargreeves was currently away overseas. But Luther and Pogo were both at home, although Luther and the old ape were already in bed.

“Oh please don’t wake them on my account.” Klaus said as his mother ushered him through the house towards the kitchen. Whenever he came to visit the part of Grace’s programming that was responsible for daily nutrition seemed to go into overdrive.

But before Grace could even attempt to get him to eat Ben appeared, wide-eyed with panic. 

“Klaus you need to get out of sigh.” He hissed in a whisper, forgetting in his urgency that no one else could hear him. 

“Why?” Klaus asked.

“Because Luther and Diego just caught Nathan upstairs.” Ben explained. “I better get back to him before he says the wrong thing, he’s distracting them, so you’ll need to be the one who breaks into the office now.” 

Not long after Klaus rang the front doorbell, Nathan climbed in the window of Klaus’s childhood bedroom. 

“Stay here for a minute, I’ll go check that everyone in the house is distracted.” Ben told Nathan. But before he could leave the door opened.

“Klaus?” It was a man dressed all in black with _knives_ strapped all over him he came into the room flicking the light on.

Nathan jumped, blinking in the sudden brightness. 

“Shit!” He yelped, eyeballing the knives.

“Hey, don’t worry it’s just me.” The man told him grinning a little at his startled expression.

“That’s Diego.” Ben told Nathan. “He’s our brother.”

“Great, this is just great.” Nathan sighed.

Diego frowned at him, scrunching his eyebrows together.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He huffed.

“If you are going to be Klaus you have to lose your accent.” Ben reminded Nathan.

“Oh, that’s right, I’m an American.” Nathan said in an exaggerated version of Klaus’s accent, drawing out the e in American.

Diego’s eyebrows furrowed a little deeper.

“Are you high?” He asked.

“Yes.” Nathan agreed. “That would be in character.” 

Then he paused because a second man had appeared in the doorway, behind Diego. He was very tall with light, short blond hair, and blond eyebrows that were scrunched in a confused frown that mirrored Diego’s.

“Diego? Klaus?” He asked, his voice was low and stern. He was dressed for bed, and looked a little sleep ruffled, like they had woken him.

“That’s Luther.” Ben told Nathan. “I better go fill Klaus in on what’s happened, if our dad sees him they’ll work out you’re a fake.” And with that he left Nathan alone with the two strangers.

“What are you doing here?” Luther asked his brothers, he looked annoyed and confused.

“Screw you.” Diego bristled at him right away. “It’s my house as much as yours, I don’t have to explain my comings and goings to you.”

“Yeah.” Nathan agreed, feigning outrage, puffing his chest up.

“Oh? And is there any particular reason you both chose to sneak in through the fire escape instead of the front door?” Luther smirked at the pair.

“I’m not sneaking.” Diego told Luther. “I just move quietly.”

He sounded smug about this, and leaned against the door frame, as if trying to emphasize how unconcerned he was. He spun a small knife in his fingers without seeming to notice he was doing it.

Nathan swallowed hard his eyes flickering from the spinning knife in Diego’s fingers to Luther’s enormous arms. “I..uh…there was a whole bunch of ghosts…around the front door….didn’t want to walk through anyone….so I just…”

“Why are you talking like that?” Luther interrupted his ramblings.

“Just ignore him, he’s high.” Diego said rolling his eyes.

“Fuck your arms are massive.” Nathan marveled, Luther had crossed his arms angrily and it made his muscles stand out even more. 

Luther scowled at him, sure he was being mocked but not sure how.

Diego raised an eyebrow, he looked bemused.

Luther made a humming noise, like he had just realized something.

“You both heard that Dad is out of town and came over when you thought you could avoid him.” Luther accused them both.

“I was hoping to avoid you too actually.” Diego told his brother, he pushed of the door frame and walked away.

Luther scowled at his retreating form then turned back to Nathan.

“I bet you’re here to try and steal some money or something to pawn, well it’s not going to happen. I’m going to lock up everything valuable while you are here.” 

“Oh, come on Lucifer.” Nathan whined. “You don’t have to do that.” 

“Insult me all you want Klaus but I’m still locking everything up. It’s for your own good as much as to protect our belongings.” Luther told him firmly, frowning down at the shorter man.

“I mean, look at you, you're more unkempt than usual, it’s obvious you’ve been on a drug binge.” Luther disapproved.

“Hey fuck you.” Nathan snapped at him forgetting to cover his accent. “Twat!” 

Luther frowned at him shaking his head and started to walk away.

Nathan panicked. He was losing control of the situation, the two brothers could go anywhere, they might run into Klaus. He did the first thing he could think of to distract them both.

He punched himself in the face as hard as he could and started screaming.

Luther turned back to him quickly in alarm.

“Klaus what happened.” he asked, looking worried. 

Nathan threw himself at Luther still screaming like he was the one being attacked.

Luther shoved him away and stepped back, confused. But to Diego, who had just come running back to see why Klaus was screaming, it looked like he was throwing Klaus down. Nathan just let himself fall so he hit the floor spectacularly. He lay there in a groaning pile; his nose was bleeding a little from punching himself.

“Luther what the fuck?” Diego snapped, looking ready to kill, knife in hand.

“I didn’t…” Luther gestured helplessly. “He’s acting crazy!”

Ben reappeared and looked at the scene in dismay.

“What did you do?” He asked Nathan.

“Are you OK?” Diego asked, crouching down to Nathan and helping him sit up. “What happened?”

Nathan huddled into him, making himself shake and sob.

“He’s a monster.” Nathan cried in his best whiny Klaus impression. “He said he was going to lock me up.” 

“I never said that!” Luther argued.

“I heard you say something about locking him up from downstairs.” Diego accused.

“Please don’t let him lock me up Demetrio!” Nathan begged.

“Diego.” Ben corrected him tiredly.

But Diego was too busy yelling at Luther to have really noticed.

“What they hell is wrong with you?” Diego fumed. “Just because you're strong doesn’t mean you can just go dragging people around and locking them up.” 

“I never laid a finger on him.” Luther roared back. “He’s just high or doing it for attention or something.” 

Nathan sniffled pitifully. 

Ben rolled his eyes. “You’re laying it on a bit thick, Klaus won’t be happy if you get another one of his brother’s killed.”

“And I never said I would lock him up.” Luther added irritably. “I swear, I just said I would lock up all the money and valuables. You know, so he can’t sell them and buy drugs and overdose.”

Nathan saw Diego’s face softened a little, so he knew he was losing his audience.

“I thought you said you were going to lock me up.” Nathan said in sudden inspiration. “To stop me taking drugs.”

Luther’s face also softened at this. 

“What no, of course not.” He said, seeming genuinely sorry for Klaus.

“You do that to Klaus all the time.” Ben scoffed. “Every time you send him to rehab.”

“It’s my worst fear.” Nathan told the brothers, inspired by what Ben had said, thinking this would hold their attention out of guilt.

“Being locked up alone, sober, with all the ghosts.” 

Luther frowned.

“Really?” He asked. “Why?”

Diego looked similarly surprised.

“Yeah, how are ghosts your biggest fear?” He asked. “You see them all the time and you know they can’t touch you. How are you not used to them by now?” 

Nathan was genuinely stunned by this reaction. He knew this was Klaus’s biggest fear and he had barely met the guy. And ghosts could touch, Nathan was surprised the brothers didn’t know that. He knew drugs stopped powers from working and wondered if Klaus had been suppressing his powers with drugs for so long, they had just forgotten what they were really like.

“You guys are shitty brothers.” He told them dryly.

Meanwhile, Klaus was in Reginald Hargreeves office trying to open the safe behind the painting.

“Damn it.” He muttered fiddling around with the dial. “He must have changed the combination.”

He looked around the room as if looking for help but he was alone. Ben was with Nathan and he was too high to see anyone else.

Klaus felt uncomfortable in his father’s office, the memories it bought up gave him goose bumps and he was jittery. 

Giving up on the safe he stared pocking around the desk when suddenly Ben reappeared.

“Hide!” He told at Klaus. “They’re on their way.”

Klaus dived under Reginald’s desk, pulling the chair in from underneath. A few moments later Klaus heard Luther’s heavy tread enter the room followed by Nathan’s lighter tread and wheedling voice.

“Come on, you don’t need to do this big guy.” Nathan whined at Luther.

Klaus winced at his terrible accent, but the note of panic in his voice sounded genuine, Nathan had clearly been worried about Klaus being found out. 

Luther ignored Nathan, he already had an armload of small, valuable things and wordlessly gathered some more from the desk before removing the painting from over the safe and unlocking it with practiced ease. He carefully loaded the valuables into the safe. As he was doing this, he heard several muffled sneezes from the general direction of Reginald’s desk. But when he turned to that direction, he saw Klaus was at the other side of the room, round eyed with panic. Luther frowned at him.

“Stay out of dad’s desk.” Luther snapped. “I'm locking up anything valuable, but he won’t like you getting his papers out of order.”

He locked the safe back up, spinning the dial with a flourish and replaced the painting.

“I’m going to lock up the library and the parlor next so don’t even bother.” Luther said firmly.

He turned to leave the room.

“And stay out of here.” He added, seeing Nathan was not following him out of the office and was instead just edging around nervously.

Nathan gave him an exaggerated serious look and mock salute. He followed Luther out of the room and down the hall but ran back to the office as soon as he saw Luther was distracted. 

Klaus was just unfolding himself from under the desk when Nathan ran back in and the sound of the door opening startled him into smacking his head hard on the underside.

“Fuck that was close.” Nathan said. “you could have warned me about all the knives and the muscles.” He added.

Klaus straightened up rubbing his head.

“Sorry, I didn't think you would meet them.” He sighed. “Hey, can you ask any ghost that are about if they know the combination for the safe.” He added.

But none of the ghosts did. 

“Shit this is such a bust.” Klaus said sadly.

“Not completely.” Nathan grinned, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold pocket-watch on a solid gold chain.

“How?” Klaus asked excitedly.

“I followed your brother, the big blond one who looks like he could choke a horse to death one handed, followed him all over the mansion while he was locking stuff up and collecting the most valuable items. I just waited until he was distracted and picked his pocket.” Nathan explained with a shrug. 

“Now let’s get the fuck out of here before they catch us together and go find a pawn shop.” 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After leaving the academy Klaus and Nathan go get some food then find somewhere to sleep for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realised I should trigger warning this, it mentions a ghost who died from suicide, and mentions ghosts of people who died of cancer and feeding tubes. It's only in passing but i don't want to upset anyone ever!!!!! I HC that the main reason Klaus can't handle seeing ghosts isn't just because they are gross or scary, but because they make him really sad!

Nathan, Ben and Klaus escaped through the back ally.

“You need to eat something.” Ben told Klaus, he had been really uncoordinated climbing out the window, and it made Ben remember that Klaus had kind of already been on a bender before he ran into Nathan and hadn’t eaten or slept in a long time. 

“Now that you mention it, I’m fucking starving.” Nathan moaned clutching his stomach. 

“There is a donut shop not far from here.” Ben remembered. “We used to go there sometimes as kids.”

As they walked to Griddy’s Klaus started sneezing and sniffling every few minutes.

“Here.” Nathan offered Klaus a cigarette after his second sneezing fit. “If you’re getting sick it will kill the germs.”

“I don’t think that’s how any of that works.” Ben disagreed.

Klaus accepted the smoke happily enough, but it didn’t stop him from sneezing, if anything it made it worse. 

It was so much warmer inside that Klaus realized how cold he had been. He had felt like something was vaguely wrong for a while, but he was too high to quite put his finger on what it was or how to fix it. Now it all made sense. He sighed in relief and melted into his seat.

Nathan glanced up at him from the menu and smirked.

“You’re right off your tits aren’t you.” He said, amused.

Klaus also laughed and sat up a bit more. 

“How are you not?” He asked amazed.

“I have a lot of shit to do.” Nathan told him with a shrug. 

“Never stopped me.” Klaus sighed. 

“Are all rich families super fucked up?” Nathan asked him bluntly. “you know, like yours? Your family is fucking weird!”

Ben frowned at his lack of tact.

“Yes.” Klaus said confidently. “According to my research so far.” 

“Why did you all dress like you were retarded?” Nathan asked, remembering the pictures he had seen around the mansion with amusement.

Ben scowled at him.

“Don’t say retarded, it’s ableist.” 

Nathan scoffed at Ben.

“Oh yeah wouldn’t want to offend any differently-abled ghost’s that are listening in.” He said loftily. They were the only living people in the restaurant apart from the waitress and she was in the back, but several messed up ghosts were lumbering around.

When the waitress finally returned, they both ordered pancakes, because they were cheap and filling. But Klaus found them tasteless and claggy and mostly just pushed them around his plate until Nathan noticed and took Klaus’s plate as well. 

Nathan talked a lot as he ate. He talked like it was his mission in life to make everyone want him to shut up. But Klaus was yet to get any kind of personal information out of him. He wouldn’t say much about his family, or his life at all. He was constantly deflecting with sarcasm and crude humor. Klaus noticed right away, because he also did this, to some extent.

“Seriously though.” Klaus slumped on the table, he propped his head up with a loosely curled fist that felt sticky somehow, despite the fact he had barely interacted with his pancakes.

“How are you so calm about seeing dead people all the time?” 

Nathan just shrugged. “To be honest I don’t normally even notice them.” 

He yawned and stretched. “I’m knackered.” He declared. “Meet me at the same pawn shop we first met at, tomorrow yeah?”

“Where are you staying?” Klaus asked following him out of the diner. 

“In the fucking Ritz obviously.” Nathan told him frowning when he noticed Klaus was following him. “Where do you think you’re going?” He asked furrowing his thick eyebrows. “If you think we are having some kind of auto -erotic twinsest romp you've got another thing coming sonny.”

Klaus spluttered, indignant and tried to refute this but just started coughing.

This made Ben laugh.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look scandalized before.” 

“I don’t…. want… that.” Klaus managed to choke out between hacking coughs.

“Hey come on I was just fuckin' with ya.” Nathan told him, slapping him on the back and offering him another cigarette to help his cough.

Ben just rolled his eyes tiredly.

“You can stay with me but it isn’t really the Ritz, I am squatting in an empty apartment, it’s pretty shite but hey, you can always go back to your fucked up super hero mansion if you don’t like it.” He shrugged.

Klaus definitely didn’t want to, so they walked to the apartment.

The moment they stepped inside Nathan began arguing with someone Klaus couldn’t see. 

“It’s the ghost of the person who lived here.” Ben told Klaus.

Klaus frowned to himself and counted the number of pills he had left, mentally calculating how to ration them. It wouldn’t do to go into the poker game while in withdrawal, so he would have to be careful. But he also didn’t want to deal with Nathan’s ghost housemate. 

“Help yourself to anything in the house.” Nathan told Klaus with the air of a magnanimous host, then laughed nastily at the empty air.

“Well it’s not like you can fucking use it now is it Marcus?” He snickered.

“I’m taking the bedroom you can have the couch.” Nathan added to Klaus as he left the room shutting the door behind him before Klaus had a chance to respond. 

Klaus could hear Nathan continue to berate Marcus's ghost for a few minutes, finally threatening to start wanking just to make the ghost uncomfortable.

Marcus must have left after that because there was a short silence. 

“A bit.” Ben said with a shrug.

Klaus looked at him confused.

“Marcus asked if you are also a jerk.” Ben told him.

Klaus shot him a withering look. 

Klaus was too strung out to go straight to sleep so he started poking around Marcus's house. He couldn’t find any alcohol in the kitchen so he moved on to the bathroom.

“Jackpot!” he said happily. Marcus's medicine cabinet was full to bursting with various tubes and boxes.

“Looks like you died a natural death at least Marcus.” Klaus mused to himself stuffing various packets in his pockets for later.

“He had cancer, but he jumped off a bridge because he was sick of dying slowly.” Ben told him. "So far no one has found his bady or noticed he has died."

“Ben!” Klaus whined at him indignantly. “What’s the point of getting high to block out all the sad stuff if you’re just going to tell me about it?” He grumbled.

When he was done rummaging through Marcus's medication, he started running a bath. He could hear Ben in the next room, probably bitching about him with the new ghost. Klaus smirked to himself and took a few pills and relaxed into the hot water. The heat felt so good on his aching muscles he put his headphones on soaked for a while. 

By the time Klaus was done with his bath and curling up on the couch to sleep the sky was beginning to lighten with the raising sun. 

He woke up screaming with ice cold water in his face. The water pulled him straight from a bad dream into a flashback from a horrible moment of his childhood and he flailed around wildly trying to work out where he was and what was happening. He began to calm down as he saw Nathan and Ben and remembered where he had fallen asleep.

Nathan was standing over him, holding a now empty glass of water and watching him with undisguised mirth. Ben was glaring at Nathan with more irritation than Klaus had ever seen Ben show a person. There was also a sickly looking man in his late thirties, watching them all with mild curiosity. 

“Fucking hell mate.” Nathan told Klaus. “I was starting to worry you were dead, well, I knew you couldn’t be dead obviously, because of our freaky powers, but shit…you haven’t moved in like, sixteen hours.” 

“He hasn’t slept in days.” Ben told Nathan. 

Klaus groaned and rubbed his eyes.

“Sixteen hours?” He asked, his voice was so croaky he had to clear his throat. 

“Yeah we already went to the pawn shop and everything.” Ben told him.

Nathan threw a pile of clothes at Klaus.

“Here, I got us two matching outfits, so we can swap over more quickly.” Nathan explained. “I found an even better poker game tonight.” He grinned.

“How do you find out about these things?” Klaus asked him, frowning in distaste at the plain dark grey suit and white shirt.

“From the ghosts of people who used to gamble.” Nathan told him shrugging.

“Were they dead because of the gambling? I’m not sure this sounds like this is a very safe plan…” Ben criticized. 

“Yeah well, what’s the worst thing they can do? Kill us? Ha, like they could. Worst case scenario we lose all the money.” Nathan rambled as he stepped into the bathroom. “Get dressed.” He told Klaus. “I’m having a shit, shower and shave then we are leaving.” He slammed the door shut.

"He has far too much faith in both of your abilities." Ben sighed.

Klaus got up shakily, stretching his sore muscles and cracking his neck. His mouth felt like a sandbox so he went over to the kitchen tap and drank directly from the faucet until Nathan yelled at him from the shower, the crappy water in the apartment not coping with two taps at once. 

“You should eat something.” Ben reminded him. 

Klaus looked around the apartment but all he could find was strange, sealed plastic bags of mush.

“I couldn’t eat anymore.” Marcus told Klaus, he lifted the hem of his shirt to show him a feeding tube.

“Oh…” Klaus said hesitantly. “I guess they are nourishing at least…” 

He cut a hole in the corner of the bag and squeezed the goop directly into his mouth. He swallowed thickly making a face.

“How is it?” The ghosts asked.

“Like someone else has already chewed it for me.” Klaus grimaced. He took a pill, washing it down with the rest of the feed bag. Then he splashed some water in his face and changed into the clothes Nathan had bought him. He was just fixing his eye make up when Nathan emerged from the bathroom. Seeing that Klaus was doing his eye make up Nathan yelled at him, then insisted Klaus do his eyes as well. He seemed pleased with the result.

“OK let’s go play some fucking poker!” 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nathan Ben and Klaus go to the poker game but it goes badly because of course it does. CW for violence and character death, kind of, because Nathan....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to write a lot more about the actual poker game itself but then realized I don't really know how to play poker, so maybe I shouldn't have made it such a prominent plot device... Then I realized I basically did what Nathan did in my story, and like, I love Nathan Young, but I don't want to catch myself acting like him!

The poker game was held in a club the basement of a restaurant in a rough part of town, it was set up like a small casino with various tables for blackjack, poker and craps. 

“This has a very…organised crime …feel about it.” Ben remarked nervously.

“We’ll be fine.” Nathan waved off his concern.

Klaus went into the basement first and went furtively strait to the bathrooms and hid in a cubical. Once Ben confirmed he was out of sight Nathan came in.

“Forgot my wallet.” He said to the disinterested bouncers as he slipped into the club. Nathan did do better this time at not insulting anyone too badly and following Ben’s advice on how to bet. But there were times he messed up because he didn’t understand Ben’s instruction, or because he didn’t understand the rules, so after a few hours playing he was barely hanging in there. He excused himself and went off towards the bathrooms.

Klaus was waiting for him in the lady’s room. There were very few women present so he had just been in a cubicle with an out of service sign on the door all night, sitting cross legged on the toilet to keep his feet from view and fidgeting with nervous energy. 

He had taken some speed which was keeping away the ghost and withdrawals, but it was also making him jumpy and restless and kicking up his anxiety. The club seemed a lot more ominous than the previous one they had been at. And away from Nathan’s infectious confidence Klaus was no longer sure this was a good idea. It was also really boring in the cubical alone for several hours. He had nothing to do really but to focus on how sick he felt. The speed had actually helped his congestion a lot. But his nose kept running, he worried how much paper was left in the dispenser, and he couldn’t stop sneezing. Whenever someone did come in to use the bathroom, he had to curl up into himself and wrap his arms around his face to muffle the sound. 

But even that didn’t happen frequently enough to break up the monotony and he was just trapped in an endless cycle that began with his nose running so badly he had to use up what was probably half a roll of toilet paper. Then a sharp, prickling irritation and pressure would begin to build up in his sinuses, insistent and annoying but not quite enough to trigger a sneeze, after about 20 minutes of this he was debating getting even more high just to get away from the itch and he finally started sneezing.Then he couldn’t stop, and after a few minutes of this he misses the itching, it really hadn't been that bad, but he can't do anythign about it and just sneezes until he was lightheaded. Then he had to blow his nose 100 times and so the cycle stared again. He also just felt really uncomfortable in the cramped little room balancing on the toilet cross legged stopped being comfortable very quickly.

He was so relieved when he heard Ben and Nathan come into the lady’s room he got up much faster than he should have as he burst out of the cubical to meet them.

“Hey how….”

Suddenly the room spun, his vision went black and his knees buckled. He dropped sideways to the floor. Ben ran to catch him but obviously couldn’t and just phased through him. Klaus saved himself before he hit the floor, awkwardly grabbing onto the door frame.

“Fuck’s sake, are you high?” Nathan demanded.

“I just got up too fast.” Klaus grumbled woozily getting back up, he looked terrible though, his nose was red from blowing it so much, he was pale, and his eyes were glassy.

“Yes you are!” Nathan fumed at him. “Look at your pupils, you moron, what the fuck were you thinking?” 

Klaus teared up a little at Nathan’s words, he was no higher than usual, he didn’t understand Nathan’s point.

“I was thinking being a little high wouldn’t be as bad as being in withdrawal.” Klaus hissed at Nathan.

“But Klaus you can’t be…high…in a place like this!” He put a strange shrill emphasis on the word high that just made Klaus more confused. Like he was missing something.

"I should of thought of this." Nathan said furiously, seemingly to himself. "I should have fractured in you being a fucking junky."

Klaus looked stricken.

Then they got unlucky, one of the other poker players had been walking past to the men’s room and heard raised voices in the Lady’s room. He came in to check it out and gasped in surprise as he saw the two identical men.

“What the hell.” The man asked.

"Shit." Nathan, Klaus and Ben all said at the same time.

Then Nathan stunned everyone else in the room by immediately jumping on the man, knocking him to the ground and looping an arm around his throat to stop him from yelling out.

“Klaus, get out of here, just leave, don’t worry I have a plan, I’ll be fine, but you have to get out for it to work.” Nathan yelled at Klaus as he struggled to overpower the man.

“But…” Klaus looked dazed.

“No shut up and do it.” Nathan interrupted. “Ben go with him, get him out of here.” Nathan yelled.

His confidence snapped the brothers into action. Klaus ran out of the room but then slowed as he saw the crowd milling around the basement look up at him. He pulled himself together and gave the room an embarrassed smile. 

“Thought I saw a spider.” He laughed, it had a hysterical edge to it and made him cough but the room seemed to bye it and lost interest in him. Klaus strode off towards the exit as quickly as e could while still keeping an air of composure. He made his way out of the basement, muttering something about getting more money out as pasted the security at the door. 

He just made it outside when he heard shouting inside the club and chanced breaking into a run. He didn’t hear anyone chase him, but he thought he heard a gunshot and yelped in fear.

“This way.” Ben encouraged him, from an alley up ahead.

Klaus ran towards him, his lungs were burning, and he didn’t know how long he could keep up this pace.

“Ben…was that… a shot? Klaus asked between frantic panting breaths.

“Do you…think they…shot him?” Klaus was starting to sob as well as pant.

“Klaus please just focus on getting out of here, try and breath.” Ben told him, but his face was full of worry.

“He said he had a plan.” Klaus sobbed. He was no longer able to run. He was barely able to walk he was so out of breath. 

“Wait here a second.” Ben told Klaus, motioning for Klaus to hide behind a dumpster.

“Are you going to check on Nathan?” Klaus wheezed, curling up between the concrete wall and the metal bin.

“I’ll be right back.” Ben assured him.

Ben didn’t go back to the basement. His priority was getting Klaus to safety. There wasn’t much he could do for Nathan anyway. He actually wanted to check they weren’t being followed. There were a few men out on the street but they just looking around scowling, they didn’t seem to know which way to go to look for Klaus so he must have a bit of a head start at least. 

As Ben went back to Klaus he could hear him coughing almost a block before he got to him.

“Come on.” He urged Klaus. “You have to get back to the apartment.” 

“What about Nathan.” Klaus asked.

“I’m sure his plan is to meet us there.” Ben insisted. 

Klaus didn’t look convinced but followed Ben to the bus stop and took the bus back across town to Marcus’s apartment, crying silently and shaking from the shock of what had just happened.

Once they were inside Klaus’s composure broke.

“It’s all my fault.” He sobbed. “I always ruin everything.” 

“No, come on, it wasn’t all on you.” Ben tried to comfort him. 

“Do you think he’s dead?” Klaus wailed. “Should we call the police?” He started to cough raggedly, he sounded exhausted.

“I don’t know.” Ben said, undecided. “But I don’t think he is dead, if he was dead surely his ghost would be here ranting at you by now.”

Klaus seemed to calm a little at this.

“What the hell happened?” Marcus asked, but Ben ignored him, he liked Marcus but you couldn’t go around filling every ghost in or you never got anything done.

“Listen, I’m going back to check on Nathan OK. You just wait here, don’t take anymore drugs...OK…Klaus!”

Ben waited for Klaus to meet his eye and nod to show he understood.

Ben didn’t like leaving Klaus alone in this state, he was worried his brother would OD while he was away. But he needed to find out what happened to Nathan. He was just making his way down to the street when he was suddenly pulled from his feet and found himself standing several miles away on a pier by the river. 

“What the fuck?” He felt briefly disoriented, looking around he saw Nathan walking towards him. He felt a rush of relief, as well as faint annoyance.

“Did you just… _summon_ me?” Ben asked.

Nathan looked fine, well he looked very pissed off and was soaking wet but he looked unharmed.

“Nice to see you too, yeah I’m fine thanks for asking.” Nathan muttered rolling his eyes and shaking drops of brown water from his jacket sleeves.

“Where is Klaus?” Nathan asked looking around and suddenly seeming anxious.

“Back at the hotel.”

Nathan relaxed at this and huffed a relieved breath. 

“He is kind of freaked out though. He's really worried that they killed you, how did you get away?” Ben asked.

“They did kill me and then they dumped my body in the river.” Nathan told Ben grumpily. He fished a crumpled, soggy pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and held it up for Ben to see.

“Assholes, that was almost a full pack they wasted.” He complained.

Ben just stared at him blankly for a beat.

“What do you mean they killed you?” Ben asked eventually when his brain stopped short circuiting.

“They shot me in the head.” Nathan clarified.

“But you’re not a ghost.” Ben said hesitantly.

“Of course not.” Nathan agreed. “Look.” He picked up a discarded wine bottle at the edge of the pier to demonstrate he could interact with the world.

“Unless I’m like one of those movie ghosts.” Nathan said grinning and waving the bottle around slowly.

“You know the ones that like to randomly open or close doors and make household objects float around by their own volition.”

He continued to wave the bottle around making ghost noises until Ben snapped at him.

“What the hell Nathan? How are you alive?” Ben fumed.

“I’m immortal.” Nathan snapped back. “Oh shit you guys didn’t know?” His eyes widened in sudden realization. “Shit!”

“What do you mean immortal?” Ben asked, confused.

“Like I get shot in the head then…I don’t know…half an hour later, I’m fine.” Nathan clarified.

“You have super healing?” Ben asked raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah, but it only kicks in once I’m dead.” Nathan says sulkily. “Once I broke my leg and it didn’t heal for like a week, then luckily I got hit by a bus and woke up completely healed in a hospital morgue.” 

Ben just blinked at him in shock.

“Are you trying to tell me Klaus has never died?” Nathan asked amazed. "That guy? Are you kidding me?"

“Well…” Now that Ben thought about it, that did explain how he escaped some situations in their childhood.

“Not that I know of.” Ben said hesitantly. “But he has almost died a bunch of times when he overdosed.”

“Yeah well, our powers don’t work if we are high.” Nathan reminded him.

“That’s why you got so angry at him.” Ben said softly.

“Well sure, I need money, but I wouldn’t want to get Klaus killed or anything.” 

The two of them start walking along the street. Nathan’s shoes squelched as he walked and he moaned about chaffing.

“I don’t think we should tell him.” Ben said thoughtfully as they walked.

“You don’t think he’d want to know he’d be immortal if he was sober?” Nathan asked.

Ben shook his head. “I don’t think it would encourage him to be sober.” Ben said sadly.

“But it might encourage him to be more reckless, and he is already way too reckless, besides, we can’t know for sure you have the same powers.”

Nathan looked thoughtful as they walked along.

“OK, whatever you think.” He said eventually.

“What you are agreeing with me just like that?” Ben asked, surprised.

Nathan smiled, uncharacteristically soft.

“I have a ghost brother too.” He told Ben. “he shows up sometimes, tries to encourage me to make better life choices.” 

Nathan seemed sincere, and Ben felt relief, he hoped Klaus never had to find out whether he was immortal or not.

Klaus was beside himself by the time they returned. His eyes were bright with fever and Ben thought he obviously had not followed his advice to not take anymore pills. he was slurring badly and had such terrible balance he almost fell over twice leaping up from the couch and running over to Nathan to envelope him in a hug.

“You’re OK!” Klaus gasped and jumped back. “Urgh you are all wet!” He observed then grabbed Nathan in a hug again. “I don’t even care I’m so relieved!” He slurred drunkenly patting Nathan looking for injuries. 

“Are you OK? How did you get away? Why are you wet?” Klaus asked him, not leaving any room between questions for an answer.

“I’m fine stop manhandling me.” Nathan scowled at him. “I know I’m sexy but I am not just a piece of meat.”

“I…” Klaus began,fuzzily confused but Nathan interrupted him.

“I escaped through the sewer.” Nathan told him.

Klaus blinked at him slowly, his eyes were struggling to focus on anything.

“That’s why I’m wet.” Nathan smirked as Klaus’s comprehension dawned and he made a face and stepped away.

“I’m going to shower.” He told Klaus stepping into the bathroom and slamming the door shut on Klaus’s baffled face.

“Is he real?” Klaus asked Ben, sounding dazed.

“Yeah he got away unharmed.” Ben reassured Klaus.

Klaus just stood there swaying unsteadily and staring at the bathroom door in confusion.

“Klaus come and sit down before you fall over.” Ben told his brother.

Klaus turned sluggishly and stumbled over to him flopping back down on the couch.

“What did you take?” Ben asked him.

“Hhmmm?” Klaus hummed, raising his eyebrows questioningly. Ben sighed and turned to Marcus instead.

“What did he take?” Ben asked the ghost.

“Nothing that I noticed.” Marcus told Ben blandly, he had just been watching the hole scene with the air of a person watching a tv series they enjoyed..

Klaus sneezed several times, snapping Ben’s attention back to him. He groaned and dragged the whole length of his arm under his nose.

“I didn’t take anything.” Klaus told him petulantly, sniffling thickly and looking dejected, like he might start crying again. 

Ben frowned, looking his brother over more carefully Klaus didn’t look well at all. He had dark bags pooling under his eyes and a sheen of sweat on his skin. 

“Oh you’re just really sick.” Ben said apologetically. “You should lie down, try and get some sleep.” 

Klaus huffed a sigh, a petulant sulky sound but he did followed Ben’s advice. He turned out the lights in the living room but left the kitchen light on so he didn’t have to be in total darkness, then he curled up on the couch pulling all the blankets and various discarded garments around the room over himself and making a sad little nest.

Ben thought he had fallen asleep but then heard Klaus whisper.

“I always fuck everything up.” 

Ben sighed. “It’s OK Klaus, everything turned out alright.” 

Klaus shook his head. In the dim light Ben could just make out tears on Klaus’s lashes. 

“He’ll leave now.” Klaus predicted. “He won’t want me around anymore because I fucked up.”

Ben sat next to him on the couch, wishing he could climb into the nest and hug his brother. It had been a stressful day. Ben also could use a hug.

“He isn’t mad at you.” Ben assured Klaus. “He was really worried about you.” 

“He was?” Klaus asked hopefully.

“Yeah of course.” Ben said. 

Klaus relaxed, the tension left his body and his eyes fluttered closed.

“Night Ben.” He slurred at the ghost. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nathan explains why he is so desperate to make money.

Unfortunately Klaus was correct in his prediction. Nathan had decided to leave and announced as much as soon as he came out of the shower.

“What? You can’t.” Ben said alarmed. “Klaus will be devastated.”

“It’s for his own good.” Nathan insisted.

Ben shook his head. “Can’t you both just, I don’t know, not do really dangerous things?” He pleaded.

Nathan scoffed. “I doubt it.” 

“Well don’t just leave while he’s asleep.” Ben begged. “At least talk to him.”

Nathan agreed to this, he planned to sleep first anyway, he insisted he would talk to Klaus later and went off to sleep in the bedroom. But Klaus woke him up a few hours later, screaming from a nightmare.

Ben tried to wake him, calling his name, but he was in the grips of the dream and could not seem to hear him. He twitched and cried out pitifully in his sleep. Nathan came bursting out of the bedroom looking bleary and annoyed, his hair a ridiculous nest.

“What’s going on?” He demanded.

“Klaus is having a nightmare.” Ben told him. “Can you wake him up? I think it’s really bad.”

Nathan’s angry scowl softened. He flopped down on the couch next to Klaus and shook the sleeping man by the shoulder. 

“Hey, c’mon, wake up.”

Klaus’s eyes snapped open and he pushed away from Nathan with a cry of fear that rapidly turned into a coughing fit.

“It’s OK, it’s just us.” Ben told him soothingly. Klaus looked around the room wildly but gradually relaxed and caught his breath. 

“You didn’t leave.” Klaus said softly once he got his lungs under control.

Nathan just looked at him for a long time then sighed.

“Klaus I just don’t want to you to get killed, but I have to keep trying to make money.” Nathan told him, he was trying in his own way, to be kind to Klaus, but he wasn’t very good at sparing people’s feelings and came across a bit blunt.

“And your kind of a complete mess right now.” Nathan explained. “So I don’t think you should be involved in anymore schemes.” 

“But I love schemes!” Klaus argued tearfully. 

“What do you need money for so badly anyway?” Ben asked Nathan bitterly.

To his surprise Nathan rushed into the bedroom and came back with a crumpled photograph. He showed them the photo of a young woman holding a baby.

“This is Marni and Nathan Junior.” He told the confused brothers.

“You have a baby?” Klaus asked, awed.

“Yeah.” Nathan smiled at the picture, a gentle, fond expression they rarely saw on him.

“He’s not mine, you know… biologically… I met his mum just before she gave birth to him, but I don’t care, he’s mine.” 

Klaus and Ben just stared at Nathan in frank amazement as he went on to gush about how much he loved Marni and Nathan junior, that he cared about them more than anything and wanted to look after them and keep them away from all the weird bullshit in his life. Then he described Marni’s body in uncomfortable detail and began telling them explicit details of his sex life.

“Ok we get the picture.” Ben interrupted.

“You should have told me earlier.” Klaus told Nathan clapping him on the shoulder. He grinned at his duplicate, he struggled out of his laundry nest and lurched across the room to the phone.

“I have a plan.” Klaus told him confidently, but then had to stop and cough up a lung.

“Is it take some medicine and go back to bed?” Ben asked dryly.

Klaus shook his head.

“Is it dangerous?”

Klaus managed to stop coughing and picked up the phone, sighing dramatically.

“Only to my fragile sense of self-worth.” 

It took him a long time to get through to Alison, most of the day and well into the evening. His main problem was getting past Alison’s personal assistant who knew that speaking with any of her family members was likely to upset Alison resulting in more takes and more wasted time, so she was very hesitant to help. Often, she was able to get rid of Klaus by offering to wire him money. But today he was persistent and not to be put off for a few hundred bucks. He insisted it was urgent, and he genuinely sounded ill, so eventually the PA relented and went to fetch Alison for the call. 

Alison was getting her hair done while reading a script.

“Your brother is on the phone.” Her PA told her.

Alison glanced up at them in the mirror.

“Which brother?” She asked.

“Klaus.” 

Alison sighed.

“Of course, it is.” She rolled her eyes she was pretty mad with Klaus, last time she had seen him he stole her jewellery. 

“He said it is an emergency.” The PA relayed.

“Everything is an emergency with that boy.” She sighed, still skimming the pages.

“He sounded kind of sick…” The PA admitted reluctantly.

Alison frowned a little at this and put her script down.

“OK maybe I should take it.” Alison decided. She apologized to the hairdresser and excused herself to take the call in private.

“What do you want Klaus?” She asked him tiredly.

“Alison!!! Soooooo good to hear your voice sister! How are you?” Klaus babbled delightedly at her. But her assistant had been right, he sounded horrible, all stuffed up and raspy.

“Are you sick?” She asked him.

“I’m just fine.” He told her then there was a quick muffled sound of him covering the receiver and turning away to sneeze several times.

“Uh huh.” She said, audibly unconvinced.

“I am actually calling because I need a favor dear sister.” Klaus told her, sniffling and coughing a little.

“Shocking.” Alison deadpanned.

“It’s not for me, it’s, well it’s kind of to fix a mess I caused.” Klaus told her.“See I met this girl, about a year ago, she was here on holiday from the UK and… well…we had a lot of fun together but then she went back home and I thought that was that but then… nine months later…”

“Klaus!” Alison snapped, interrupting his ramblings. “Did you get a girl pregnant?” She grit out each word, furious with her irresponsible brother.

Klaus tittered nervously on the other line.

“Well…maybe…it was a pretty crazy week.”

Alison rubbed her face with the hand not holding the phone.

“What the fuck were you thinking not using protection?” She asked, angry that Klaus had ruined another normal family moment for her. Finding out your sibling has a child should be a nice moment, not something you want to hide from the press.

“You can’t even look after yourself, how will you look after a child?” She seethed at him.

“That’s why I’m calling actually.” Klaus continued, undaunted by her anger and maintaining his thin veneer of cheerfulness.

“I know I can’t look after a baby. I know the baby will be better away from me, away from the academy and most of all away from dad.” Klaus told her.

“The mother doesn’t want me in the child’s life or anything, and she met someone else. But they have no money, and I want to provide for them, I want to make sure they have enough money to stay away the press, if you get what I mean, never need to go to the media with the story to make money…” he trailed off when he heard her make a short sound of irritation.

“If this is a scam Klaus.” She threatened

“Please Alison, you don’t have to trust me, you can set it all up, so you can see that the money goes to Marni and not to me.” Klaus pleaded.

Alison huffed, shaking her head in disbelief.

“This is a new low for you Klaus.” Alison told him. “I know you have problems, but I never thought you would drag someone else into them like this.”

There was a few moments of silence.

“Klaus?” Alison asked.

“I’m still here, just processing what you said.”

Alison frowned, she knew she was being harsh, but it was true, she really hadn’t thought he would be as careless with other people as he was with himself.

“Please Alison, I just want to keep them away from dad. I don’t know what he’d do if he found out, and you know he shouldn’t be allowed near children.” Klaus pleaded, he sounded on the verge of tears.

Alison sighed. It was true, and of course it meant she had to deal with her stupid, reckless brother’s problem, because he was too irresponsible to ever be able to deal with this himself.

“OK, give me her details and I’ll set something up for them.” She relented.

She took notes as he relayed Mari’s detail to her.

“OK leave it with me.” Alison said once she had everything, she thought she’d need. “But Klaus, I’m serious, never do anything like this again.” She told him, so much disappointment in her voice that Klaus felt ashamed even though he knew he hadn’t actually done the thing she was angry about.

“Don’t worry sis.” He assured her, keeping the false cheer in his tone. “Right after this I’m off the clinic to get a vasectomy.” 

She didn’t laugh at his joke

“That might not be such a terrible idea.” She told him then hung up.


End file.
